The problem of cleaning up an oil spill in a harbour or near a coastline line is well known and a great variety of proposals have been made in vain attempts to offer solutions to the problem. One suggestion is to burn off the oil by dropping magnesium particles and then setting fire to the oil-magnesium mixture in the hope that sufficient heat will be generated to support combustion long enough to consume a reasonably large amount of the spilled oil. However, often there are such high thermal losses to the water and air that combustion cannot be maintained and the first soon dies out leaving the water polluted to a greater degree than before by the additional products of combustion and unburned magnesium particles.